5 September 2002. Thanks to D.
Cryptome welcomes information on whether this video has been released and if so whether there other news reports about it or transcripts of its contents for publication here. Send to jya@pipeline.com
The Sunday Tribune Web site is "under construction."
Neil Mackay reported a similar story in the Sunday Herald on June 30, 2002:
http://www.sundayherald.com/25876
Neil Mackay on agent Kevin Fulton of the Force Research Unit (FRU), an ultra-secret wing of British military intelligence:
http://www.sundayherald.com/25646
Sunday Tribune (Ireland)
June 30, 2002
HARRY McGEE
THE British intelligence agency MI5 helped a double agent who had infiltrated the IRA to find infra-red equipment in the United States that was later employed as state-of-the art bomb detonators by the Provos, an extraordinary video that has been made by renegade army agents will claim.
The video, made by agents who formerly worked for British army intelligence, makes a number of astounding claims and also identifies by name 12 alleged senior British intelligence officers, as well as members of their families. The agents also say the video will expose the modus operandi and dirty tricks used by MI5 and the shadowy army intelligence unit, the Field Research Unit (FRU) in Northern Ireland, in addition to describing details of some of the most "shocking" undercover operations carried out by security forces.
One of the key figures behind the video, entitled Agents: No More Lies , is the former double agent known as Kevin Fulton, who infiltrated the IRA in the Newry area while being handled by the FRU.
Fulton was the agent identified in Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's report on the RUC's investigation of the Omagh bombing. He had warned RUC special branch of "something big" being planned by the Real IRA some 48 hours before the explosion that killed 29 people.
The renegades intend to release the video in the [Irish] republic and on the internet as part of a whistle-blowing campaign to highlight the 'dirty war' carried out by security forces in Northern Ireland.
One of the reasons behind selling it in the republic is that the agents would face prosecution under the Official Secrets Act in Britain or Northern Ireland. If they proceed with plans to release the video, it is highly likely that the British government will apply for an injunction to prohibit its distribution or sale and to have copies of the video destroyed.
The most explosive allegations - the British secret services helped find infra-red technology that aided IRA bombing operations - will have serious repercussions for the British intelligence services, who already stand accused of colluding with loyalist agents.
Further allegations that British intelligence at best turned a blind eye towards, and at worst aided and abetted, terrorist operations will strengthen the belief of the relatives of victims - including the family of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane - that an international independent inquiry is needed to investigate the dirty war and the extent of collusion between security forces and paramilitaries.
In the video, which has been seen by The Sunday Herald - a Scottish newspaper with which The Sunday Tribune has a close association - Fulton names four people whom he alleges are FRU officers, including a serving lieutenant colonel in the intelligence corps - and one of whom he alleges is an MI5 officer.
According to Fulton: "We are to distribute this in the Irish republic because that is the only way we can get this information out. We want to get this information out so the MoD will honour its debt to us. If the MoD settled our disputes, this video would never see the light of day." The disputes to which he refers are to do with the alleged abandonment of agents by secret services.
Despite having been encouraged to join the FRU whilst still a serving soldier in the British army, Fulton was subsequently convicted for IRA terrorist offences. He claims that he was set up by his former handlers.
He and other rogue agents have campaigned to force the British Ministry of Defence to clear their criminal records, and provide them with relocation packages and full military pensions.
Another agent who appears in the video is former British soldier Willie Carlin, who infiltrated the senior levels of Sinn Fein with the sole purpose of passing on information to the intelligence services. He also discloses the name of alleged FRU officers and their family members in the video.
In the video, Fulton says that he was encouraged to carry out most of his operations - including bomb-making - in the republic. "Ninety per cent of what I did took place over the border, " he says. "I was basically told that over there anything goes."
Fulton also told how he helped develop a light-sensitive remote control device for booby-traps for the IRA with his handlers' full knowledge. The detonation equipment was set-off by photographic flash units. He explained how the IRA fitted the light-sensitive remote control inside a teddy bear in a van in Crossmaglen and wired it to a single mortar in the vehicle. It was fired by an IRA man using a flash-camera and successfully hit an army helicopter. However, nobody was killed. "We were working on making infra-red detonators which could be triggered from over a mile away. In late 1993 and early 1994, I went to America with officers from MI5, the FRU and RUC special branch. They had already sourced the transmitters and receivers in New York following liaison with their counterparts in the FBI."
Fulton claims he made so many bombs - all of which he told his handlers about - that he lost count. Carlin tells how he befriended senior republicans, including Martin McGuinness and eventually became McGuinness's press officer and treasurer of Sinn Fein in Derry.
Carlin claims that when his cover was eventually blown and the IRA worked out he was an informer, he was flown out of Northern Ireland on Margaret Thatcher's private jet.
Army and intelligence sources have reacted with horror to news that the video is due for release sometime before the autumn. One said: "Irrespective of what members of the army and the security services are alleged to have done, no one should consider naming them publicly. This puts their life at serious risk from IRA attack. It's a disgraceful gambit."